Dawn Haze
by Kitsune Foxfire
Summary: One shot set after Shanks meets Ace for the first time. Semi-followup of 'Restful Port' and 'One Bond' Shanks has a run in with his favorite marine. Seems like Garp left some important things out when they had their little 'talks'. T for language.


_**Kitsune here. This story should be the last installment of this one-shot series. Each can be read on it's own, or together, which would be why I posted them separately. I love Shanks as a character, and Garp needs more fans, too. I've got nothing else to say, so, please enjoy.**_

_**Question of the story: "What was your favorite show as a child?" Mine was Thundercats!**_

* * *

It has been a long day on the seas. A long couple weeks, actually and Shanks was really looking forward to finding a good bar as soon as he pulled into port. Benn could handle getting the supplies; he was going to get a drunk . Amazingly, gloriously drunk. Who the hell cares if it was still technically morning? Maybe he'd get wasted enough to forget things like Marines chasing him, or uppity rookies. Rookies like one Portgas D. Ace , who _thought _he could take on Whitebeard. Forget convincing the kid it was a bad idea; he was as pig-headed as the rest of his family.

Shanks shook his head to clear the thoughts as he arrived at the bar. It was a big fancy place, and he could hear the crowd already in there. "It sounds like I'm not the only one planning on getting smashed this early. Good, I hate drinking alone." he grinned as he pushed open the door and strode in like he owned the place.

The bar fell silent for just a moment as heads swiveled around to see who has arrived. When they saw it was none other then Red-Haired Shanks walking up to the counter, quite a few left._ The weenies. Oh well, what's the fun in drinking with cowards, anyway?_ He mused as he smiled up at the barkeeper, a surly looking man who could most likely hold his own in a brawl. "A bottle of sake, please, and a plate of your house special."

The man behind the counter just grunted his agreement as he placed the bottle on the counter with a clean glass next to it. He then poked his head in the back, most likely giving the order for food, before returning to the bar. Shanks ignored to look the man was giving him; instead he focused on the booze. It was pretty good stuff, even if it wasn't as good as North Blue sake. When the bowl of thick stew was place in front of him, he tucked into it like a starving man. Again, it was good, though not the best he's ever had. But, after living on ship for the past month or so, it was a nice change of pace. It was obviously made in quantity, and for some reason, he found himself missing Makino's home made stew.

This had him thinking about Luffy and his brother all over again. "Dammit," He sighed, "there's nothing I can do about it. More booze!"

Around his third bottle of sake, Shanks was beginning to feel a nice buzz. He was nowhere near drunk as of yet, but if the warm fuzzy feeling was any indication he was well on his way. People came and went, but sadly not a single person join him at the bar. Drinking alone sucked._ I'm not that intimidating am I?_ He was regretting now having the rest of the crew restock the ship and not taking one or two with him. Sometimes though, a captain needs some alone time away from his crew.

Shanks grinned as someone took the seat next to him. It looked like someone was brave enough to join the Yonko at the bar. As he felt more than saw the other patrons of the restaurant withdrawal to the far corner, he wondered exactly who it was._ Probably one of my crew, or maybe some bounty hunter trying to make a name for himself,_ he thought to himself as he polished off the rest of his bottle.

"Another, please."

"One for me as well." his new drinking partner said, leaning forward with a creak of the stool. It was a very good thing that Shanks had finished his drink, or he'd be choking on it. He'd know that voice anywhere. This could turn out to be a bit more of a party then he'd wanted.

"Isn't it a little early for a marine to be drinking?" Shanks drawled, eyeing his companion, "Particularly on of your standing, Garp?"

"Bwahahahaa! That's a good one! Too early! It's never too early for a good drink!" The Vice Admiral laughed, slapping the table in his humor. Shanks was just glad he wasn't slapping him. Garp had impressive strength, even when he wasn't using Haki. Though, Shanks suspected that Garp was such an idiot he accidentally leaked Haki into his attacks. Garp raised his glass to Shanks in an obvious toast before downing the whole thing and pouring another. "Gah! Good stuff! Tell me, Red-Hair, What brings you to port? Turning yourself in?"

Shanks tipped his glass towards his long time frienimy before taking a sip, "Hardly. We just needed to restock, and then we'll be moving on. What about you? Are you here to try and bring us in?"

"Hey now, I'm just here for a drink. I didn't even know you were in port till I walked in the door." Garp lied, only slightly more convincingly then his grandson did. Still, Shanks decided to play along, laughing with the marine and scaring the crap out of the few souls remaining in the bar.

The two drank in silence for a while as the red haired captain waited for the other to get to the real point of the visit. He was reasonably sure he knew why Garp was here, and while it probably had everything to do with pirates, it had nothing to do with his crew. Garp kept giving him a funny look out of the corner of his eye. He grinned into his cup, knowing full well he could out-wait the marine. He was going to make the old coot work for it, that was for sure.

"Been in the area rounding up some rookie pirates, really." Garp finally admitted.

"Rookies, pah. Not worth your time, Garp!" Shanks laughed, "Though I hear there's that Super Rookie...what was his name again? Didn't you guys ask him to be one of the Shichibukai?"

"First off, the Marines don't _need_ the help of any pirates. It's a stupid idea in the first place. And I told them he'd turn them down. Brat's name is 'Fire Fist Ace'. You know his reply only had six words, 'Go To Hell You Shitty Marines' the look on Sengoku's face was priceless! Bwhahahaha!" He howled, tears steaming down his face. Shanks could see the pride shining in his eyes, pride one would not expect a marine to have for some upstart rookie. Grudging respect, maybe, but not pride.

Casually, he eyed his empty cup, "Fire Fist, huh? Speaking of rookies, I had an interesting run in with one myself just the other week."

"Oh? The young dogs wearing you down?" Garp grinned at him, the look a cat gave a bird it was considering eating.

"Hardly." both laughed, "Me and the boys were on top of this nice mountain..."

"Mountain? A pirate on top of a mountain, did you get lost or something?"

"Shut up, will ya? Do you want to hear this or not?" Garp just grinned at him, causing him to roll his eyes, "_Yes_, a mountain. The sunrise was supposed to be spectator on that island on top of the mountain."

"Well, was it?"

"Now I know where Luffy gets it. We never found out. Snow storm rolled in. Now stop interrupting."

"Fine fine. So you were on a mountain to see a sunrise, but forgot to check the weather. Continue."

"_Anyway_. We were holed up in this nice little cave at the top, you know, waiting out the storm."

"Drinking."

"Yes, Drinking. We had all this booze for the sunrise, didn't want it to go to waste." The other nodded his understanding, "And this punk-ass rookie comes strolling in with some of his crew. Middle of a fucking blizzard, and they came up a mountain after us."

"Ballsy."

"Right? Of course, I recognized the brat right away...Infamous Super Rookie Captain of the Spade Pirates. Portgas D. Ace." He looked over at the suddenly sweating and silent Vice Admiral, "Naturally, I figured he was there to fight me. I mean, why else climb a mountain in a blizzard?"

"You..."

Shanks spoke over him, "But then he said he just _had_ to meet me. Apparently his little brother wouldn't shut up about how I'd saved his life. Now, I'm a pirate, I've killed a lot of people, and I've saved a lot of people. But I can count on my one hand the number of people who'd qualify as a 'little brother' to some rookie."

Garp refused to look at him, eyes roaming around the now empty bar. Even the stoic barkeep had at some point decided it would be safer elsewhere, apparently. The red-haired captain mused, "What I find odd, however, is how _Luffy_ neglected to mention his older brother to me. Kid's not exactly great at keeping a secret at all. Then I thought, 'Well, maybe Luffy didn't know.' Except Makino told me the _only_ family Luffy had was you and his father, who he wasn't even aware of. Which got me to thinking about Fire Fist's last name, kinda reminded me of this lady the capt'n was sweet on. So, Monkey D. Garp, care to explain to me what the hell you thought you were doing?"

The man seemed to deflate, "What does it look like like?"

"That you kidnapped your worst enemy's son, _my captain's son,_ for some bizarre reason, and didn't turn him over when _the whole world_ was looking for that man's child. But go ahead. Tell me I'm wrong."

"I didn't kidnap him. It was a promise between men. Rodgers _asked_ me to look after Rouge and their baby, unlike a certain other ingrate who just dumped a baby on me. He didn't want his family blamed for what he had done, you know. I did what I could for Rouge, but she didn't make it."

"The marines?"

Garp shrugged, sighing, "Ace blames us. She died giving birth to him. Doctors said the extended pregnancy destroyed her health. Carried him for almost two years, you know. One hell of a woman, she simply _refused_ to give birth while they were still looking for the child of that man."

"Damn. So then what? You just take the baby and dump him somewhere?"

"I did not '_dump him somewhere_'! I left him with Dadan. And I visited every time I went to Foosha. He terrorized the poor woman." He grinned, "Shoulda seen it when I dropped Luffy off."

"You know, Garp, _normal_ people raise their own kids." Shanks laughed, feeling bad for Dadan, "They must have eaten her out of house and home."

"Nah, she made them go hunting. Course, every time I came to visit, the little shits took to the hills and I had to go chase them down."

"What, they didn't try and take you down?"

"Oh, that came later." The man grinned, "Three-Two on one? No contest." _Three?_ Shanks almost asked, but he caught the fleeting look of pain in Garp's eyes and let it slide. "I guess I should thank you." The marine grudgingly muttered, rousing him out of thoughts of where Garp picked up a third kid.

"Huh?"

"He might have become a damn _pirate_,"

"Can't blame me for that one!"

Garp glared at him, "If you hadn't saved Luffy, those two would never have met. Luffy..." The big man rubbed the back of his head, "was very good for Ace. I should have introduced them sooner. Of course, I heard they lost him in the forest a few times, tied him to a tree, and there was something about fighting in Gray Terminal first, but that's siblings for you, right?"

"...You were an only child, weren't you?" Because, to him, that sounded more like Ace had hated the rubber child. _Stunts like that could have gotten a small idiot-boy killed, easily_, he thought as he broke out in a cold sweat thinking about it.

"Bwhahahaha, it all worked out in the end! I should have known he'd look you up though. Ace actually learned _manners_ in order to thank you, you know. That boy...if I can just convince Luffy to become a marine, Ace would become one in a heartbeat."

"Two problems with that, my friend. First, this is Luffy we're talking about." Shanks grinned, "Second, Ace is planning on going after Whitebeard, so..."

Garp's head hit the table, "He's dead. Seventeen years of keeping that stupid boy alive and he's just got to go after Whitebeard. That's it. I'm going after him, and when I catch him, I'm gonna beat the _shit_ out of him! _THEN_ I'm going to drag his ass back to Dawn Island and nail it to a tree."

"Don't you think you might be over reacting just a bit? Newgate _likes_, how does he put it, 'cheeky snot-nosed brats', you know."

"That's even worse." Garp growled, standing abruptly. The Marine was radiating anger as he strode out the door, "Thanks for the drink. I've got a stupid grandson to catch."

"Hey! Who said I was paying for you? You're not my idea of a date!" He called after him, knowing full well that the chances of him catching Ace were slim to none. Shanks wasn't too worried though. Newgate had a tendency to collect strays, after all. Of course, there was the chance that Whitebeard _would_ kill the cocky brat. "Maybe I should send Jinbe a message. Yeah, that might work." He grinned, a plan forming in his head.


End file.
